Promise
by Joelcoxriley
Summary: A dragoness worries about her special needs son as she thinks about her death. The Guardians deem him a lost cause, but she believes her baby is beautiful, and touched by the Ancestors. The others just do not understand why he is beautiful. They do not see what his mother sees.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is something that came into my mind. Please enjoy!**

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The mother stood, watching her son work upon the canvas as his paws mixed all kinda of colors together: red paint, green, blue, purple. It did not matter what color he worked with. He used them all, and he loved each one no matter what shade.

The young drake's talons scraped against the once white sheet of the cloth, paint on his nose, chest, paws. Everywhere. On the floor, on the walls...some even got on the ceiling, though the dragoness did not know how, since her child could not fly. He would never be able to fly; not with his disadvantage.

Her child was beautiful-and much like his father. The chick mirrored the older male with a golden hue on his scales, a dull, almost silver blue being his secondary color. But her child never met his father. Her mate had wanted a son; but he did not want the son she gave him. So her mate had left, leaving her with their child.

But it did not matter, for she loved their baby, and loved him enough to fill the missing void of his father. She had fallen in love with her child. She had fallen in love with his sapphire eyes that looked upon her-the same ones she carried. So she named her child Zaphire.

Layers upon layers of paint coated Zaphire's talons, both dry and wet as his mother slowly approached behind him, as if not to disturb him. She smiled upon the painting-a bit childish, and nonobjective, but it was beautiful in her eyes. Just like her child.

"That is beautiful, Zaphire. I am so proud of you." She whispered lovingly, nuzzling her child as the young male turned towards her, staring upon her with his bright eyes. The slightest smile tugged upon the corners of his mouth, a beautiful eye beginning to wander on it's own.

"Honey, why don't you wash up? Mother will be right in to help you." She suggested, lightly pushing him towards the direction of the bathroom, the young drake almost blindly following the direction of her shove.

The dragoness looked upon the painted trail her child had left in his wake, shaking her head as she followed him into the bathroom. Zaphire stood, motionless save for the slightest twitch in his body, tongue slipping in and out.

The mother approached, taking a warm cloth and gently rubbing his paws and in between his talons, "I love you, Zaphire. Never forget that, do you understand me?"

She looked upon her son, his eye looking upon her while the other one shook in place, trying to move and bounce.

"If something happens to me...you will have to take care of yourself, can you do that?" She asked, trying to hide the terror within her voice, an eye still looking upon her. The other now bounced every which way, "Zaphire, do you understand me? Do you understand?"

He nodded, closing an eye as his mother wiped the paint off his face, "Good."

She then paused, as if thinking of what to say, "The other dragons...honey, they will say mean things to you. Terrible, horrible things, and I need you to be strong, okay? I need you to be...strong and...and to not listen to them because...because..."

His mother broke off, a film of tears beginning to shine, "Because they're not true, okay, Zaphire? What they say is not true. You are not...you not mute, you are not dumb, you are not a freak, you are...you are not retarded, oh, honey those are all lies! They can't see you for who you really are! My baby boy! They can't see...they can't see that you are strong, that you are beautiful, that you are different!"

By now, the dragoness was shaking with soft sobs, her head down to try and prevent her baby from seeing her cry. Zaphire looked upon his mother, an eye watering as he slowly moved towards his mother and nuzzled her, attempting to embrace her, but was too small.

"I love you! I love you so much, honey!" She sobbed weakly, embracing the small drake as a tear slide down his still eye, for he could not speak, could not return the words he wanted to say. Wanted to try to say to her, but had no idea how, "I...It's not your fault. Zaphire, you were made for a reason, I believe. You are touched by the Ancestors. You have a gift, I know. You love to paint."

She smiled weakly. Painting was the only thing Zaphire enjoyed-or seemed to. The mother had rarely let him outside in the city of Warfang. He frightened children his own age, or became a target and known as the strange child. She thought the children would be accepting of her baby, but she was wrong, and the pain hurt her. Even the Guardians had used magic to prevent him from unlocking his natural element of electricity. Too dangerous, and unstable, they deemed. Zaphire was never even tought to fly. He was deemed untrainable by the instructors. Untrainable? Her baby wasn't an animal! They didn't even give her child a fair chance to learn and grow! Now, all he had was paint and canvas to reveal his emotions.

"Never give up on what you love, Zaphire. You understand? You fight for it, and never give up. Fight, and prove them wrong. Show everyone who doubted you want you can do. Can you promise me that?" She whispered, Zaphire looking upon her, one eye still, the other shaking.

"Can you promise me that? Fight for what you love, and be the best that you can, honey. You can do it if you put your mind to it. I believe in you."

The sapphire eyes that she fell in love with blinked, and the golden drake slowly nodded in response, tongue slipping out to lick his mother as she smiled sullenly, "I love you, too. I will always love you, honey."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, guys! **

**I was reading through some of my older works and stumbled upon this one shot. I completely forgot about Zaphire as a character, as well as his little story here. After rereading it, I realized that even though originally Zaphire was created as a parody towards the Guardians, his character has the ability to grow and flourish if given the chance, and I believe he can grow immensely. **

**I may give Zaphire an actual story of his own revolving around his external and internal struggles since no one within this archive has even dared to bring forth such a challenging character to this extent. Despite the natural challenges of Zaphire, I believe he can develop into a wonderful character, and shed a new light upon the fandom. **

**However, this larger story is ultimately up you as the reader. I will not waste my time writing a story if you as readers are not interested in the idea. Please leave a review stating why or why not you do not like this idea so I can get a head count. I will also place up a poll on my profile that will hopefully settle the fate of Zaphire and his arch. **

**Thank you for reading and please give feedback. At this point, ideas are welcome on the subject matter and over all plot-which will not be anything too drastic. Like saving the world-which most random OCs seem to do. 'Cause Zaph is special.**


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